Is the Siege of Alesia BS? (minimized spoilers)

[Zyliah]

I have about 80 hours played going into the Siege of Alesia, and I've largely enjoyed it. There have been a handful of moments where I wasn't thrilled about how those moments were handled, but overall the game's quite good.

That's why I don't want to just complain about the siege. I'd rather explain my observations and ask if I'm being fair or not.

(this is where the spoilers start)

I've already tried the siege once. I went in with my core group decked out, split up my praetorians the best I could—one of my occasional gripes has been that, while they tell you what each group needs to do, there's no clue as to what might help, e.g. range or fire—and went to work. I pulled a big stupid and accidentally moved one of my front-door praetorians a step too close to a catapult shot, and he dropped; because I didn't have a way to revive him, I had to keep killing Gauls until some allies made it to the fort. This turned the core group's invasion of the city into a cakewalk, so it wasn't all bad.

The rear group took out the dam in four rounds. I forgot that, because the dam was wood, fire might help, but I had no range and one torch, so I'm not sure I could have done it much faster. Then I had to get the front-door group to survive the swarming of the remaining Gauls. Unfortunately, there were just too many, and although I had them stacked up in and against one of the towers (my two praetorian archers were in this group), the Gauls eventually set the tower on fire, and the group died. Game over.

This was quite frustrating, because I wasn't sure how I was supposed to pull that off (on hard, granted) without knowledge going in of what a good group would consist of. But, OK, now I had that knowledge, so I could try again. My praetorians are level 16, so I replaced some of the ones I rarely leaned on (kept them for their camp skills) with level 18 recruits and got set up for the next run.

Unfortunately, what I didn't realize was that it doesn't matter who you take into the siege; it's your core group who does the city run. I don't need my strongest characters there, but I'm not given a choice to switch it up. Furthermore, I built a plan around Julia because she has the ability to move double on the first two turns: run her to the dam with two bows that have fire arrows, put two triarii with Inspire in robes in the group to chase after her, and fire three shots into the dam supports so they're all on fire on turn 1. Given the ludicrous number of Gauls for the front-door team to cut through at the end, I also wanted my veles reaper team on that squad—I accepted that my main character couldn't be one of them, but planned on Bestia being there.

I'm sure I can spend months of game time recruiting just the right team and setting them all up to do the same jobs I planned on the core group characters doing, or finding a way to use what I have in a way that might work, but I'm just annoyed and a little frustrated that this hyper-accomplished Roman general can't mix-and-match her praetorians more freely in the most critical battle of her career.

Is this fair? Or is there some aspect of the battle I'm overlooking or unaware of that should make these complaints irrelevant?

[asarokk]

I want to start by saying how refreshing it is to see someone ponder over a game like you now and not instantly calling everything garbage. Of course you're entitled to whatever opinion you might have regarding any game or any aspects related to games. The fact you're approaching this without any distain or disrespect for the developers is very commendable and I think they can appreciate that.

I'm assuming this is your first playthrough and don't worry, I doubt it goes perfectly for anyone the first time. Trial and error seems the best phrase to describe how to approach Expeditions Rome.

I think it's definitely an oversight not giving us more information on the sieges so that we could plan accordingly but as long as you're not playing on the hardest difficulty setting you're able to make saves before entering the siege to see which praetorians you'd like to assign to which task and what tactical items to equip them with. On that subject, I can assure you're definitely not alone with that opinion.

For future references, I recommend having at least one more triarius besides Syneros but personally I prefer having three triarii total. They're essential as you no doubt already know. Not that you couldn't predict this but on your next playthrough, I would also recommend placing two velites in the rearguard group. If you have both of them learn the Marathon skill and Tactical Advantage, you could finish the objective in record time, especially if you previously equip them with torches or preferably with Greek fire, pick up an extra torch and be sure to make use of the oils as well. The sooner you flood the trenches, the better.

But seriously, don't beat yourself over any failures. Everyone tanks their first playthrough I'm sure. Don't worry about it, next time you'll get it. You're also not the only one to be surprised having no control over where to place yourself and your companions in the Act III siege, when you had the option during first and second act, but it actually makes sense once you enter the King's hall.

I do however see your point about not being able to control who goes with you, I understand why you'd be frustrated. Although plot-wise, I think we as Legatus would want our most trusted praetorians with us in our most critical battle. After all, it could be the last time you fight together, depending on whether you choose to march your legionari across the Rubicon or not. I'm afraid to divulge any more regarding my last statement in case you haven't completed Act III.

[Fuzzyballs01 ꦙ]

what
they tell you one group needs to take and hold a bridgehead and the other group has to destroy the dam
you MIGHT be smart enough to assume the first group would require defensive units to actually HOLD the bridgehead and the second group needs movement to destroy the dam ASAP

I didn't read past that
I had to re-do the one in Greece because the bridge group wasn't fast enough so I had to get Bestia and another Veles to ignore attacks of opportunity and get a movement boost to destroy both bridges in 3 turns so it's not uncommon to make poor choices

[Viscount Danku]

I don’t get what’s the problem with Alesia. My praetorians don’t do anything during both gates section since my allies are butchering all the enemies just fine and eventually reach the inner court. As for defence, I block the entrance with flaming catapult shots and then shell the spawn area - no enemies make it to the gates themselves. Overall the hardest part of this siege for me was always burning down the dam.